What Happened to Rock?
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So I’m having a personal rock revival, going back and listening to some good records (e.g. currently Soundgarden, Superunknown) I never took the time for, and it made me wonder again: is rock really “dead” or are there still original, intelligent, musically-oriented (as opposed to merely trying to be as heavy or aggressive as possible) rock artists out there? It feels like the last great rock era was mid-2000s Tool, System of a Down, etc. No way this is really the case, is it? There must be fans of rock music as a musical form out there still cranking out great, if obscure, tunes… Right?
And for the sake of truly being a discussable topic, what do you think constitutes quality rock? For me it would be something that goes beyond aesthetics, ie rock for the sake of being heavy, loud, and angry/angsty. To take the example of Soundgarden, I appreciate how they synthesized the aesthetics of metal with a timeless blues-based sound, an emphasis on natural rhythm and soulful performance. The guitars rip, the rhythm section is driving and tight, and overall the music itself is something you can sink your teeth into. With Chris Cornell’s melodic, expressive vocals it all comes together to evoke a classic blues-rock sound stylized for the next generation.
For clarity: I’m including pretty much any kind of rock that is – for lack of a better term – blues-inclined. So that’s metal, alternative metal, grunge, “hard rock”, anything like that. Not pop-punk, but I’d be glad to hear about any developments in genre punk.
everything went auto tuned..electronic. there is ups in music and downs. this is a down.i find most singers now are tone deaf and have a 2 octave range at best. which isnt good.
Rock didn’t die. It will never die. But try to imagine a world where Jazz was considered pop music. It was a real thing for decades but slowly other genres like rock pushed it from the center of music universe to where it’s now out there with Pluto and Uranus. The same is happening to rock. Hip hop and electronic has been pushing it further and further from the mainstream but it’s still there alive and well.
Good analogy with jazz. Jazz is no longer the hit genre, but you still find plenty of jazzers out there. There’ll be plenty of rockers too, if you look hard enough.
It’s a complex subject… the way I see it, uppercase ROCK with heavy riffing, tasty guitar solos, loud voxals and solid rhythmic section hasn’t really been around for a couple of decades at least, leaving room for other genres. Just like it happened in the farther past for blues, rock’n’roll, swing, bubblegum, progressive, motown, discomusic, new wave, grunge…
Various elements of past genres still show up in modern compositions, but those genres as a major production are gone. There’s always a chance of revival, but it’ll be short lived, and likely prompted by the music industry as a quick milk cow for middle-aged consumers driven by nostalgia.
There are of course contemporary bands attempting at replicating a genre of the past. Unfortunately they never make it big, the reason being IMO that they try too much to sound like what is expected from the genre. You can’t make anymore a song as simple and as legendary at the same time as Baba O’Riley, because it’s already done. Unless you’re really talented but I don’t see many talents around with the same calibre as famous musicians of the 50-60-70-80s, and those few are just not interested in following past styles: those with a truly artistic attitude want to move forward.
That said, amateur musicians are another matter. There are tons of amateur bands around here doing music for fun rather than money, focusing on playing live, either their own original music or covers. Now, among the amateur universe Rock and Jazz and Blues and Rock’n’roll and Grunge are much more popular than contemporary pop, rap and hip hop.
And finally, no amount of mainstream garbage is going to threaten the vast library of classics that are already consigned to history, and that’s not limited to music but it also applies to movies, books and even videogames!
The amount of production in all those 4 major areas of entertainment is possibility at an all-time high, but how much of the contemporary stuff will be forgotten in a few years? People still listen to timeless classics such as Pink Floyd or Beatles, still read War & Piece, still watch Gone With the Wind, and even still want to play very retro videogames such as Bubble Bobble or the first Super Mario Bros.
So yes ROCK is dead, but it lives forever in the Olympus of the Gods, where most of today’s stuff won’t ever go
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />And now someone go and chart this:
Technology what killed Rock and music in general. I remember growing up listening to Steve Miller Band, Santana, Kiss, etc in the mid 90s. 50s to early 90s was Jazz, Blues, etc. In 2000s Nu-Metal, Grunge, and Punk went huge. In 2010s, Rock music fell off the mainstream 100%. Country, Pop, and Rap took over the mainstream. Yes, music mainstream nowadays is garbage. Now they have bass blasting, talent-less, singer off key (They use auto-tune to fix it.), pressing buttons on instruments, etc. I don’t know about Country music because they use live instruments. Mainly Pop and Rap are talent-less people. All they talk about is money, fame, dancing, and sex. It’s rare to find a talented musicians but they are out there. Even there are bands out there making real music but they are not getting attention. Dirty Honey, Bishop Gunn, and Fuzz…I know they are music. Greta Van Fleet is also music but the are commercial success. I don’t care if bands nowadays are rip-off or not. I like listening to instruments and vocals. If your looking for Rock bands, you need to ditch top 40 garbage charts and go find talented bands on the internet. Rock maybe dead but it will always be there behind the curtain
I’m a real deal drummer because I grew up listening to old bands and I played school jazz band for 3 years. I have confident of playing songs and doing stick tricks.
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